Staff Profile

Career Summary

Biography

Roger Stuckey received his Bachelor's Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Sydney in 1990 and PhD from the same institution in 1995. Following completion of his doctorate, he worked as a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Engineering for 6 months. In 1996, he was employed as a Research Scientist in the Air Operations Division (AOD) of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). During the period from 1996 to 2004, he worked in several groups including Flight Mechanics, Simulation and Helicopter Flight Dynamics. In 2003 to 2004, he also undertook a Masters of Computer Science in Information Technology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 2005, he obtained a new position in the Maritime Operations Division (MOD) of DSTO, where he worked in Maritime Tactics and Concepts, Capability Studies and Unmanned Systems groups. In 2007, he completed the DSTO Graduate Program in Scientific Leadership from the University of Melbourne. In 2009, he received a Defence Science Fellowship to conduct research in the area of autonomous systems at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, CA. He returned to the Unmanned Systems group in MOD, DSTO in 2010. Currently, he holds the position of Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering, where he is continuing research in autonomous systems.

Research

Research keywords

Autonomous Systems

Cloud Computing

Distributed Computing

Dynamic System Modelling

Evolutionary Algorithms

Multibody Dynamics

Parallel Processing

Parameter Estimation

Robotics

Simulation

System Identification

Research expertise

I have over 15 years of research experience in a broad range of areas related to complex and dynamic systems. Several of the research programs I have been involved in have been led by myself, and many are still active. The principle contributions include:

Multibody dynamics modelling, simulation and analysis of helicopter slung-load systems: This project was well published and received high praise from DSTO and the Australian Defence. Although I am no longer leading the project, it remains ongoing.

Analysis of complex scheduling operations: I instantiated a program to develop a generic discrete-event simulation framework that could be utilised for a wide spectrum of problems, including naval area defence and unmanned maritime operations. The framework can exploit multi-core systems or run in a distributed client-server architecture either locally or remotely on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for scalable performance gains. It has since been used by several other countries under a Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) as well as other branches involved in Operations Research within DSTO.

Terrain-relative navigation of autonomous underwater vehicles: This research area is under active development. The underwater navigation system conceived during my Fellowship at the Naval Postgraduate School remains one of the focus areas in the Unmanned Systems group of DSTO. It has been the subject of investigation for several university student research projects.

Body relevant to professional practice.

Awards

Defence Science Fellowship

2009

Defence Science FellowshipDefence Science and Technology Organisation (Australia)Awarded to conduct research in the area of autonomous systems at the Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research, Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, CA.

Matlab Programming Contest

2004

Matlab Programming ContestThe Mathworks (United States)Winner of one phase during the contest.

Collaboration

Whilst in the Flight Mechanics group of AOD, Roger Stuckey conducted research into the use of genetic programming for flight system identification under a collaborative agreement with the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra. For a large proportion of his time in the Helicopter Flight Dynamics group, he worked on a task to model the dynamic behaviour of helicopter slung-load systems. This work was done in collaboration with other groups in DSTO, such as Air Operations and Simulation, and involved close consultation with the relevant Army client groups. During his long-term attachment to the Naval Postgraduate School, he undertook a cooperative research project on terrain-relative navigation in the Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research, which resulted in a continuing agreement to exchange code and data of mutual interest. More recently, Roger has worked closely with other Divisions in DSTO, such as the Maritime Platforms Division (MPD) on the development low-level dynamics and control models, and the Air Vehicles Division (AVD) on the determination of hydrodynamic coefficients for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). In the same area, he has also exchanged models and data with the New Zealand Defence Technology Agency (DTA) under the Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP). Currently, he is working in collaboration with researchers from MIT and Teledyne/Gavia on the development of guidance and navigation software for another AUV.

Administrative

Administrative expertise

My role in many of the projects I have been involved in have entailed the initial formulation of task plans, proposals for funding, management of task finances and staff involved, reporting, demonstration and training for the clients, as well as subsequent advice and support.

I am also the systems administrator for a number of workstations and servers - both physical and virtual - in DSTO, Sydney. My responsibilities cover account management, operating system and software installation, hosting services including version control, backup and so on.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

Distributed Computing

Genetic Programming

High-level Programming

Mechanics

Software Engineering

Stability and Control

System Identification

Teaching expertise

During my postgraduate studies, I presented several undergraduate lectures in Mechanics. I also tutored in a number of subjects, including Flight Stability and Control, Mechanics and Engineering Programming. In addition, I developed and presented a short graduate course in System Identification to other postgraduates and staff. At DSTO, I have given talks on a range of subjects from genetic programming to distributed computing. I have also given short courses in Matlab and Python programming and taught various engineering topics to staff and university students.